Day 7
Travel Location: Rosebud,Australia
We were woken up at 3 am by a loud grunting noise. After opening the curtains of our campervan, we saw a Koala in the moonshine just climbing down the tree and walking on the path. We finally got up about 7 am and took a walk to the beach. The horses were with their jockeys were there, galloping on the sand and taking walks in the calm water. Just next to the horse swam a pair of dolphins, surfacing just beside the horse.
Today we explored the island, we took a costal drive from Belnarring towards Flinders where we had a lookout of at the West Head and drove then through the Golf course, with a cliff on the left towards Cape Schanck. Cape Schank has a light house and a nice walk down the cliff towards two small stony beaches. The amount of flies was incredible and we were constantly swapping them away. Only where the wind was strong enough they disappeared or rather hide on our back.
For lunch we drove to Arthur’s Seat, the highest point of the island. The lookout on top gives an amazing view of the north coast of the peninsula and the Port Philip Bay. The weather played it’s part with a cloudless blue sky. The lunch was excellent, although a bit pricy we thought. Unfortunately we did not have time for dessert as we had to rush to the south east coast for our 2 pm horse ride.
The two hours horse ride took us through the bushlands near Gunnamatta and then along the beach. The horses were well trained and followed the instructions of the guide, ignoring the riders efforts to make them speed up or slow down. My horse was Jordan and it walked well along with the others. We tried the trot and for this the rider has to stand up and bounce back on the seat so it is easier on the horse and the rider’s bum. However, I felt like just bouncing up and down and to try to stay on the horse. Well, we made it to the beach and we had a great view. The horses went into the water until about their knees and Jordan decided that this was all he is going to do during the break. No effort on my side could move him an inch until we made tracks back to the camp.
After having a sore bum and feeling all the muscles in my legs from the trot, we decided to visit the hot springs. The spa consisted of a number of pools feed by natural hot springs. The pools were just about half a meter deep and arranged in a small park on a hill. The temperatures ranged from 34 degrees all the way up to 42 degrees. That was really hot and we only managed a couple of minutes in it before we felt like a crab in a bowling pan of water. After soaking for almost two hours in the hot water we decided to call it a day and camped at Rye on the north coast, just behind the colourful beach houses.
